Dorothy and the Spiral Path

Seamus Mullin-Norgaard

“Prajna is the wisdom that cuts through the immense suffering that comes from seeking to protect our territory . . . prajna makes us homeless; we have no place to dwell on anything.  Because of this, we can finally relax.” - Pema Chodron, Comfortable With Uncertainty

What happens “when tragedy strikes” and we are uprooted, pushed off center from the familiar territory of our lives?  Certainly we temporarily lose our bearings; our coordinates become confused.  And we scramble to reclaim our lost sense of grounding.  But is there a deeper lesson here? Is there wisdom for us to gain by exploring this traumatic process of “losing our center”?

We’ll look to Dorothy of Kansas soon as a powerful American icon of the uprooted self, blown off center.  We’ll see what Dorothy makes of her situation.  But first let’s imagine that every journey of dislocation is primal, that it mirrors that first, traumatic event that birthed our universe.

In a previous article “Four Directions,” we traced the origins of Life to that vast primeval sea of darkness before time.  Our first great shift “off center” came with the “Big Bang” when Light was born.  And with that traumatic burst of Light came the beginnings of Life.  An expanding universe was born, and the ever-outward yearnings of Evolution and Creation followed.

When our two-legged ancestors emerged, they carried inside the need for a stable “home center” dwelling place.  They also carried the requirement to journey outwards to gather the elements of survival.  The need for a dwelling “home center” - in balance with our yearnings outward - led to the “Four Directions” cosmologies of many cultures (i.e., the Medicine shield, the Celtic cross, the Mandela.)

Let’s travel now with Dorothy Gale of Kansas through a powerful dreamscape of American culture.  What happens when we cling too closely to the security of our center?  Often what was vibrant and meaningful begins to decay within our grasp:  “When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side . . . the sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it . . . even the grass was not green.”  The sun blistered the paint off Dorothy’s home leaving it “as dull and gray as everything else.”  So it was with Aunt Em: “the sun and wind had changed her too.  They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray.”  Welcome to Dorothy’s Wasteland.

When our old center no longer serves us, either a yearning outwards or a well-timed crisis may force us to move on.  In the movie, Dorothy meets a traveling carnival man who enchants her with stories of faraway lands.  In the book, it is simply the cyclone that lifts Dorothy off center, carrying her away on her spiral journey of rebirth.  Dorothy rides the cyclone with a curious grace:  “the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily…she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.”  The rebirthing process is one we often resist, focusing on the “horrible winds” outside instead of opening to our journey.

Most of us grew up enchanted with Dorothy’s adventures in the strange, new landscape of Oz.  We were delighted with her fortunate befriendings of the scarecrow, lion, and tin-man - just the right team of allies she needed to vanquish the wicked witch of the West.  We admired Dorothy for having been blown off center, yet bravely greeting her strange, new territory as an adventure.  On an intuitive level, we learned that we don’t need to hide out in our old, dead home (the house that killed the witch.)  We can take the spiral, brick path outwards instead and explore our new coordinates.  And we can trust that the journey will bring us empowerment:  like Dorothy, we’ll acquire the sacred four elements of thought, courage, heart, and service to others along the way.  These are just the elements we’ll need to face our fears of death (the wicked witch) and find a new way home.

Dorothy is a mentor in this great mystery of life.  She brings light to the secret territory of our uprootedness.  She teaches us that when our center is lost, we can open to our “homelessness” as a great new adventure.  By bravely following her yearnings, Dorothy discovers new allies and comes to serve not only herself, but also the greater needs of Oz.  When we follow our true path, we intersect with the greater needs of the Universe.  Thus Dorothy Gale remains a worthy heroine for the American dreamscape today.

Seamus Norgaard is a peacemaker, coach, and carrier of Celtic Spirit.  He welcomes sojourners to Tara’s Meadow Retreat Center, Beaver Island.  Visit www.CelticBodyPrayers.com for “Compass of the Spirit” - a Labor Day Weekend Retreat exploring our centers and fresh horizons.